Pentagon JEDI contract

The highly lucrative Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure (JEDI) contract is designed to deliver a significant upgrade to the Pentagon’s IT operations and cloud computing capabilities.

The bid was hotly contested by Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud and others, with the contract ultimately awarded to the Redmond giant in late October – a decision that infuriated Amazon and sparked a subsequent appeal.

In February, Amazon succeeded in having the project frozen until an investigation into the procurement process had been performed, although the probe later conducted by the DoD watchdog uncovered no evidence of foul play.

Eager to begin work on the contract in earnest, Microsoft appears to have reached the end of its tether with the continued delays, pulling no punches in a new blog post authored by the firm’s communications lead.

“This latest filing – filed with the DoD this time – is another example of Amazon trying to bog down JEDI in complaints, litigation and other delays designed to force a do-over to rescue its failed bid,” wrote Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP Communications.

“Amazon is at it again, trying to grind this process to a halt, keeping vital technology from the men and women in uniform – the very people Amazon says it supports.”

The war of words between the two cloud giants continued, with an Amazon spokesperson referring to Shaw’s blog post as “posture”.

“Anybody who’s studied the cloud computing space will tell you that AWS has a much more functional, capable, cost-effective and operationally strong offering,” said the spokesperson.